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Riverhead Town eyeing multiple sites for solar projects

FILE PHOTO |  Nearly 85 percent of the Greenport School is covered with solar panels.

In addition to putting solar panels on the town’s closed landfill on Youngs Avenue, for which a request for proposals was recently issued, the Riverhead Town Board on Thursday discussed the possibility of allowing solar panels in a number of town parking lots, much like Suffolk County has done at the county center.

Although the proposal is still in its early stages, the board went over a list of potential sites for solar panels at its work session on Thursday.

Sites the board majority liked included parking lots at the EPCAL ballfield parking lot, Town Hall West on Pulaski Street, Railroad Avenue, Town Hall, the police station, and lots between Roanoke and East Avenues and between Griffing and Roanoke Avenues.

Supervisor Sean Walter opposed most of the downtown sites.

Rejected sites included the Bayberry Park parking lot in Wading River, the Wading River Highway Yard, around a sump at Edwards and Riley Avenues, the skate park parking lot, the Maple Avenue parking lot, behind the Methodist Church, and the Jamesport Boat Ramp parking lot.

The Town Board received about seven proposals for the landfill solar field, and hopes to select one by the end of the year.